Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To be alive; exist.
- v. To continue to be alive: lived through a bad accident.
- v. To support oneself; subsist: living on rice and fish; lives on a small inheritance.
- v. To reside; dwell: lives on a farm.
- v. To conduct one's life in a particular manner: lived frugally.
- v. To pursue a positive, satisfying existence; enjoy life: those who truly live.
- v. To remain in human memory: an event that lives on in our minds.
- v. To spend or pass (one's life).
- v. To go through; experience: lived a nightmare.
- v. To practice in one's life: live one's beliefs.
- live down To overcome or reduce the shame of (a misdeed, for example) over a period of time.
- live in To reside in the place where one is employed: household servants who live in.
- live out To live outside one's place of domestic employment: household servants who live out.
- live with To put up with; resign oneself to: disliked the situation but had to live with it.
- idiom. live it up Slang To engage in festive pleasures or extravagances.
- idiom. live up to To live or act in accordance with: lived up to their parents' ideals.
- idiom. live up to To prove equal to: a new technology that did not live up to our expectations.
- idiom. live up to To carry out; fulfill: lived up to her end of the bargain.
- adj. Having life; alive: live animals. See Synonyms at living.
- adj. Of, related to, or occurring during the life of one that is living: a live birth; the live weight of an animal before being slaughtered.
- adj. Of current interest or relevance: a live topic; still a live option.
- adj. Informal Full of life, excitement, or activity; lively: a live crowd at the parade; a live party.
- adj. Glowing; burning: live coals.
- adj. Not yet exploded but capable of being fired: live ammunition.
- adj. Electricity Carrying an electric current or energized with electricity: live cables lying dangerously on the ground.
- adj. Not mined or quarried; in the natural state: live ore.
- adj. Broadcast while actually being performed; not taped, filmed, or recorded: a live television program.
- adj. Involving performers or spectators who are physically present: live entertainment; a live audience.
- adj. Of, relating to, or containing living, often modified microorganisms: a live vaccine; live yogurt cultures.
- adj. Printing Not yet set into type: live copy.
- adj. Sports In play: a live ball.
- adv. At, during, or from the time of actual occurrence or performance: The landing on the moon was telecast live.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To continue in being; remain or be kept alive; not to die, perish, or be destroyed: said of both animate and inanimate things, corporeal or incorporeal.
- To have life; possess organic vitality; be capable of performing vital functions: said of animals and plants.
- To use or pass life; direct the course of one's life; regulate one's manner of existing: as, to live well or ill, in either a physical or a moral sense.
- Hence, used absolutely To make full use of life or its opportunities; get the greatest advantage or enjoyment from existence.
- To abide; have or make an abiding-place; dwell or reside; have place: as, to live in a town; to live with one's parents.
- To have means of subsistence; receive or procure a maintenance; get a livelihood: as, to live on one's income.
- To feed; subsist; be nourished: with by before the means or method, and on or upon (sometimes with) before the material: as, cattle live on grass and grain; to live on the fat of the land.
- In Scripture, to have spiritual life, either here or hereafter; exist or be sustained spiritually.
- Synonyms Sojourn, Continue, etc. See abide.
- To continue in constantly or habitually; pass; spend: as, to live a life of ease.
- To act habitually in conformity to.
- Being in life; living; animate; not dead: as, a live animal or plant.
- Lively; animated; alert; energetic; not listless or inert: as, a live preacher; a live book.
- Manifesting life or energy; acting as if with living force; effective; operative; ready for immediate use or work; under pressure, as of steam: as, a live machine; live steam, etc. See phrases below.
- Glowing; vivid: as, a live coal.
- Fresh; not stale or impure.
- Of present use or interest; not effete, obsolete, or out of date; subject to present or prospective need: as, the live topics of the day; live matter (in a printing-office).
- n. A Middle English oblique form of life, still existing in alive and livelong.
- In machinery, having motion, as distinguished from fixed or stationary: as, a live axle.
- In electricity, connected directly or indirectly with a source of electric power, whether carrying current or not: said of a circuit.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To be alive; to have life.
- v. intransitive To have permanent residence somewhere.
- v. intransitive To survive; to persevere; to continue.
- v. intransitive, hyperbolic To cope.
- v. transitive To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually.
- v. transitive To act habitually in conformity with; to practice.
- adj. Having life; that is alive.
- adj. Being in existence; actual
- adj. Having active properties; being energized.
- adj. Operational; being in actual use rather than in testing.
- adj. broadcasting Seen or heard from a broadcast, as it happens.
- adj. Of a performance or speech, in person.
- adj. Of a recorded performance, made in front of an audience, or not having been edited after recording.
- adj. Of firearms or explosives, capable of causing harm.
- adj. circuitry Electrically charged or energized, usually indicating that the item may cause electrocution if touched.
- adj. poker Being a bet which can be raised by the bettor, usually in reference to a blind or straddle.
- adj. Featuring humans; not animated, in the phrases “live actors” or “live action”.
- adv. Of an event, as it happens; in real time; direct.
- adv. Of making a performance or speech, in person.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To be alive; to have life; to have, as an animal or a plant, the capacity of assimilating matter as food, and to be dependent on such assimilation for a continuance of existence.
- v. To pass one's time; to pass life or time in a certain manner, as to habits, conduct, or circumstances
- v. To make one's abiding place or home; to abide; to dwell; to reside.
- v. To be or continue in existence; to exist; to remain; to be permanent; to last; -- said of inanimate objects, ideas, etc.
- v. To enjoy or make the most of life; to be in a state of happiness.
- v. To feed; to subsist; to be nourished or supported; -- with
on . - v. To have a spiritual existence; to be quickened, nourished, and actuated by divine influence or faith.
- v. To be maintained in life; to acquire a livelihood; to subsist; -- with
on orby . - v. To outlast danger; to float; -- said of a ship, boat, etc..
- v. To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually.
- v. To act habitually in conformity with; to practice.
- adj. Having life; alive; living; not dead.
- adj. Being in a state of ignition; burning; having active properties
- adj. Full of earnestness; active; wide awake; glowing.
- adj. Vivid; bright.
- adj. (Engin.) Imparting power; having motion.
- adj. (Elec.) Connected to a voltage source.
- adj. (Broadcasting) Being transmitted instantaneously, as events occur, in contrast to
recorded . - adj. (Sport) Still in active play; -- of a ball being used in a game.
- adj. Pertaining to an entertainment event which was performed (and possibly recorded) in front of an audience; contrasted to performances recorded in a studio without an audience.
- n. obsolete Life.
WordNet 3.0
- v. have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations
- v. have life, be alive
- adj. charged or energized with electricity
- adj. possessing life
- v. pursue a positive and satisfying existence
- adv. not recorded
- adj. actually being performed at the time of hearing or viewing
- adj. elastic; rebounds readily
- adj. charged with an explosive
- adj. highly reverberant
- adj. of current relevance
- v. support oneself
- adj. in current use or ready for use
- adj. capable of erupting
- v. continue to live through hardship or adversity
- v. lead a certain kind of life; live in a certain style
- v. inhabit or live in; be an inhabitant of
- adj. exerting force or containing energy
- adj. abounding with life and energy
Etymologies
- See alive (Wiktionary)
- Middle English liven, from Old English libban, lifian; see leip- in Indo-European roots.Short for alive. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Their names will forever live on the lips of the people -- Their names will, on the lips of the people, forever live_.”
Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition
“The more we learn about our own body, that wonderful and beautiful house in which we live, the more we shall see, in what God thus formed from the dust of the ground, to call forth our admiration; but the body of the first man, although fashioned with such perfection in all its parts, did not _live_ until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”
“She sits _gracefully_; They live _happily_ and _contentedly_; we employ the verbs _sleeps, sits_, and _live_, in an active sense.”
“We may say, for example, _I live, I am living_, or _I do live_.”
“If I can live and save money at it, you ought to be smart enough to _live_.”
“Those who live in cities, and who are always realizing self, and thinking how they think, and are while awake given up to introverting vanity, never _live_ in song.”
“Men live by the primal energies of love, faith, imagination; and happily it is not given to every one to _live_, in the pecuniary sense, by the artistic utilisation and sale of these.”
“The first passage refers to a _partial_ resurrection, inasmuch as it makes mention of those only who shall hear the voice of the Son of {37} God, and hearing shall live; whereas the other passage asserts that _all_ who are in sepulchres (_mnêmeiois_) shall hear his voice, and divides these into two classes -- those that have done good, who rise to _live_”
“If I live, sir, she will have to become the wife of Rivers; and, though I love her as my own -- as I have never loved my own -- yet she must abide the sacrifice from which, _while I live_, there is no escape.”
“She died; the censors heard the tale; and scoffed at the teller of it! and that Cornelius yet sits in the senate; those censors who approved his guilt yet live — I say _live_!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘live’.
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Tati's list
comfortable
comfortable, avocado, avoid, beautiful, beer, bear, brief, breath, bug, bias, burn, case and 97 more...
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bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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Band or Brand?
Band names that are also common words or phrases.
genesis, who, beatles, journey, germs, sublime, doors, cars, nirvana, bangles, tool, pixies and 192 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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life, death, rebirth
vale of tears, aborning, transmigration, reincarnate, nativity, nascence, metempsychosis, palingenesis, againrising, psychopannychism, thnetopsychism, shuffle off this ... and 104 more...
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 327 more...
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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Semordnilap
Semordnilap is a name coined for a word or phrase that spells a different word or phrase backwards. semordnilap is itself palindromes spelled backwards. According to author O.V. Michaelsen, it was ...
was, saw, god, dog, gateman, nametag, enoteca, acetone, deliver, reviled, straw, warts and 16 more...
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popupstorybook's heteronym list
I like heteronyms--two words with identical spelling but different pronunciations. Here are a few off the top of my head. Feel free to add more. *Here's a challenge: use these words to create se...
entrance, resume, dove, construct, wind, produce, live, appropriate, slough, buffet, project, invalid and 7 more...
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X Up and X Down
Words that form common phrases (or compound words) when followed by the word "up", and also when followed by the word "down".
For example, "show" forms "show up" and "showdown".show, put, break, back, cut, dress, get, hold, let, set, throw, turn and 81 more...
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Yo-yo words
Verbs you can both "up" and "down".
Note: I prefer examples where the two senses aren't perfect opposites, e.g. warm up / warm down.dress, hork, trade, wash, scrub, brush, knock, touch, put, shoot, run, throw and 36 more...
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no little thing
it bothers me when i hear someone who have experienced something life changing use the phrase: now i appreciate the little things. I DON'T BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY LITTLE THINGS. everything is EXTRAOR...
letters, living, understand, narrow, behavior, personal, need, meant, untamed, world, soldier, 'cause and 241 more...
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Bi-sonics
Allophonic homographs. Words that are pronounced at least 2 ways, having different senses. 'august' and 'polish' are less ambiguous since capitalization make the correct pronunciation clear (at lea...
sow, row, dove, polish, precedent, rewet, lower, read, bass, patent, primer, tear and 102 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Malachi_Constant's Words
triumverate, pandemic, parsnip, delineate, zamboni, parka, laser, swoop, malevolent, benevolent, fracas, tipsy and 372 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for live.

Louises 'You live', he sent me. 'there's no God and that's his only Commandment'. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
Apr 1, 2012
ishy She lives! > Live bait.
Pronunciation. Feb 18, 2010
vanishedone Also a really vital verb. Nov 29, 2007